Khatgal

Khatgal lies at the southern tip of a large lake, the name of which just might be Khovsgol Lake. This is the destination of Mongols and foreign tourists alike.

As I left the guesthouse this morning I met a man I knew from a guesthouse in UB. Michael had been going on a 12 day horse trek to the Darkhad region with two other tourists and a guide when they had the same fate as we had. Three times their baggage had fallen from the horse. Then, their pack horse was spooked for some reason, which set off the other horses. One woman fell to the ground and bruised her leg so as not to be able to continue the trek. So Michael was back in Khatgal making plans.

I went shopping. On my list: tent, stove, tarp, poncho and hand cream. In the first store I walked into, I found four of those items, but the tent was not satisfactory. It was one of those pop-up tents, which are nearly impossible to fold back up (any hints on how to do so?). It did not have a fly cover, so I continued to look elsewhere.

Michael and I took a three hour boat tour on the lake. This is quite popular with the Mongolian tourists. An animateur kept the crowd entertained with karaoke and a running monologue, interspersed with disco beats. A couple guys climbed up on the railing of the bow for a photo-op. No safety regulation against that one. And a drunk walked up to me and punched my water bottle. Watch out for drunks.

I ordered a tent from Moron, but it arrived with no flycover and improvised stakes. So I did not buy it. Instead, I called a contact in Moron to have another one and a stove shipped up the next day.

Second Day out of Moron

Today the horse dung hit the fan.

We had difficulty packing our bags on the horse, so E asked a local man to help us. He tied our big backpacks vertically instead of horizontally to the sides of the horse and the the provisions and a couple smaller bags on top. That was quite an improvement and we rode of confident that our bags would hold.

But barely 15 minutes later our bags lay scattered on the good earth. Several dirt tracks lead from Moron to Khatgal, and we were riding on the one less traveled. But that did not keep a motorcycle from heading towards us, spooking our packhorse. That horse's frenzy spooked the other three horses. Our bags went flying. Provisions lay scattered on the ground along with the smaller bags. No one was injured. Our big backpacks remained tied to the animal, which stopped back at camp.

In the process we lost the tent poles and the stove was damaged.

We decided that I would ride with the baggage to Khatgal while E and M would ride the four horses up to that town.

In the meantime, E's family car approached, filling E with embarrassment. His horseman and mother and a couple kids piled out, discussed the matter, and took me back to Moron. Our three hour horse trek took 22 minutes in the Toyota Land Cruiser.

From Moron I found transport to Khatgal, a squished 3 hour ride in a minivan, paying double the rate due to the large amount of baggage I had.

Horse Buying in Moron

Today we bought four horses from our contact, E. E. will ride with us for the adventure. He has been to Darkhad region by jeep, but not by horse. Like us, he wants the adenture, so we bought him a horse.

We rode out of Moron at 2:30. My riding partner M. had some trouble with his horse. When he tried to mount her, a couple times she started off. This could be a problem.

We stopped by a well to water the horses at about 4:30 and made camp at about 6 pm at another watering spot about 15 km. from Moron. That was about three hours riding.

We cooked rice with dried beef for dinner, pitched our tent, and staked the horses for the night. We had in mind to do horse watch of three hours each because we have heard too many stories about horse thieves. But E., who took the first watch, promptly fell asleep. But in the morning the four horses were still staked in place.

Border Permit in Moron

It is Naadam in Moron, but the Border Office is open.

Our horse contact took us there. We needed only the hand written letter from UB stating our plans, and a copy of our passports incuding the Mongolian visa. We asked for a month of travel in the Darkhad region, and got it, for a fee of 5,000 each, instead of 2,000 tg. for a three week period.

The official warned us about heavy rains and rising rivers, shook our hands and wished us luck.Couldnt have been easier.

Time to jettison that tie.

Bus Trip to Moron

The tix cost 25,000 tg for reserved seating in the bus, which ended up with nearly 50 passengers, including aisle seaters.

We departed at 2:30, stopped for lunch at 5:15, befor which the paved road ended. It returned briefly at around 10 pm for 15 minutes and then the driver veered north, I guess, and that was the end of the pavement.

The twilight hours were splendid. Traditional Mongolian folk music playing loudly, with a couple crooners adding their personal touches. If the concert wasnt enough to make you think you were in Vegas, a fist fight soon broke out in the back of the bus between a couple of drunks. The other passengers decided the loser by seating him in the aisle next to me. I lost.

We had plenty of pit stops, with passengers crying out to the driver when needed. A breakfast stop came at about 7 am. and we arrived in Moron at 9:30, when I called our horse contact.

Border Permit in UB

Lonely Planet 2008 says about getting the border permiit in UB

1. have a mongol apply for you
2. have copies of your passport and
3 a map of your route.

What LP doesnt say is that

1. you must type a letter in mongolian about the details of your itinerary
2. the mongol who applies best wear a shirt and tie and
3. the documents must not be folded!

With all that in mind, we called the branch office in Moron, which put a much rosier light on the process.
The owner of the guest house wrote us a letter by hand in mongolian, and we took the nearly 20 hour bus ride to Moron.